President Han Jae-myung hinted at abandoning the expansion of the Capital Gains Tax.

Jin10 reported on September 11 that South Korean President Lee Jae-myung stated that he believes there is no need to adhere to the previously proposed plan to expand the scope of the Capital Gains Tax. At a press conference on Thursday, Lee mentioned that the formal proposal put forward at the end of July aimed to lower the threshold for Capital Gains Tax from 5 billion won (approximately $72,000) to 1 billion won, raising doubts about whether the government is truly committed to revitalizing the stock market. “Some seem to see this as a touchstone to test whether we are genuinely committed to the stock market revitalization policy,” Lee said. “If that is the case, I believe there is no need to stick to it until the end. I will submit this issue for parliamentary review.” The original proposal had caused a sharp fall in the South Korean stock market and faced strong opposition from retail investors. Following Lee's speech, the KOSPI index in Seoul briefly rose by 0.9% during Thursday's trading session, before retracting. The index set a new historical closing high the previous day, partly due to market expectations that the government would abandon the tax increase proposal.